Railway
Detective Series Collection by Edward Marston is 7 books set which has
mystery fiction stories in which Detective Colbeck fights to untangle a
web of murder, blackmail and destruction.
Titles
The Silver Locomotive Mystery
Murder on the Brighton Express
The Railway Detective
Railway to the Grave
The Iron Horse
The Railway Viaduct
The Excursion Train
Description
The Silver Locomotive Mystery
1854.
As the Cardiff-bound train puffs out of Paddington Station, young Hugh
Kellow wraps a protective arm around his large valise. He has been
entrusted with a priceless silver coffee pot, designed in the shape of a
locomotive, by his elderly silversmith employer. But two of Hugh’s
fellow passengers are taking an enormous interest in the young man and
his priceless cargo. When a dead body is discovered in a room at the
Cardiff Railway Hotel, beside an empty valise, the great Railway Detective
Robert Colbeck and his trusty sergeant Victor Leeming are called in to
investigate; and face a whole host of unexpected problems.
Murder on the Brighton Express
When
the engines finally met, there was a deafening clash and the Brighton
Express twisted and buckled, tipping its carriages on to the other line.
It was a scene of utter devastation. October 1854. As crowds of
passengers rush to make the departure of the London to Brighton Express,
a man watches from the shadows nearby – Chaos, fatalities and
unbelievable destruction are the scene soon after when the train derails
just outside the Balcombe Tunnel. Could it simply be a case of driver
error? Detective Inspector Colbeck thinks not. But digging deep to
discover the intended target of the accident takes time, something
Colbeck doesn’t have as the killer prepares to strike again.
The Railway Detective
1851
and the city of London anticipates the grand opening of the Great
Expedition. The London to Birmingham mail train is looted and derailed
and Detective Colbeck fights to untangle a web of murder, blackmail and
destruction.
Railway to the Grave
Yorkshire
1855. When Colonel Aubrey Tarleton walks into the path of a speeding
train, he is crushed to death on the track. The famous Railway
Detective, Inspector Robert Colbeck, is immediately put on the case to
determine why such a well-respected man would have resorted to suicide.
Tarleton’s wife had recently gone missing, but was the colonel
responsible for her disappearance? It’s up to Colbeck and his trusty
sergeant Victor Leeming to uncover the truth.
The Iron Horse
Derby
Day at Epsom Downs. A multitude of people crowd to watch the races:
dukes and dustmen, bishops and beggars, privileged ladies and
prostitutes. The gamut of Victorian society and a hotbed for crime and
crooks of all kinds. With the nation a-flutter in the run up to this
national event, a disembodied head is discovered on a passenger train at
Crewe; the first in a murky course of events that takes in murder,
fraud and race-fixing. Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck and his
assistant are assigned to the case and are soon snarled up in a web of
skulduggery stretching across the country. They are forced to ask
themselves, just how much is someone prepared to hazard to win?
The Railway Viaduct
The
Railway Detective faces his most dangerous adversary yet. It is 1852,
and Inspector Robert Colbeck and his assistant Sergeant Victor Leeming
are faced with their most complex and difficult case to date. As a train
speeds over the Sankey Viaduct, a man is hurled from a carriage and
plummets into the canal below. It later transpires that he has been
stabbed to death. With no papers by which to identify the man, the
detectives’ investigation is hampered from the start. Suspecting that
the victim may have come from continental Europe, Colbeck and Leeming
take the case to France where a new railway is being built by a British
contractor. But in a new country the detectives face new problems.
Anti-British feeling is rife and Colbeck and Leeming must put their own
lives in danger to pick up the murderer’s trail. This is the third in
the acclaimed “Railway Detective” series, “The Railway Viaduct” is an
absorbing mystery that will keep you guessing till the very end.
The Excursion Train
On
the shocking discovery of a passenger’s body on the Great Western
Railway excursion train, Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck and his
assistant, Sergeant Victor Leeming, are dispatched to the scene. Faced
with what initially appears to be a motiveless murder, Colbeck is
intrigued by the murder weapon – a noose. When it emerges that the
victim had worked as a public executioner, Colbeck realises that this
must be intrinsically linked to the killer’s choice of weapon. However,
the further he delves into the case, the more mysterious it becomes. And
when a second man is strangled by a noose on a train, Colbeck knows
that he must act quickly. Can he catch the murderer before more lives
are lost? Set in Victorian England and rich in historical detail, “The
Excursion Train” will hold you captivated from the beginning to the end
of its journey.
